Against the background of the increased attention paid to the “Black Sea initiative” for the export of Ukrainian food (terminated on July 17), concluded in Istanbul on July 22, 2022 in one “package” with the Russia-UN Memorandum on the normalization of domestic agricultural exports (valid until 2025) (these agreements are called the “grain deal”), we believe justified to state the Russian position in detail again.
After the collapse of the “Black Sea initiative”, which, as is known, did not justify the declared humanitarian purpose (less than 3% of 32.8 million tons of cargo were sent to countries in need) and was used by Ukrainians to carry out attacks against Russian facilities, no catastrophe occurred. Contrary to the alarmist statements of Westerners and the UN Secretariat about the rise in food prices and the aggravation of hunger threats, the cost of grain on world markets is steadily decreasing (in August, the reduction was about 4-5%, and from the peak values of March 2022, the decline was already 25-40%).
In general, there is no global physical shortage of food – there are problems with its distribution, but not with production. In other words, because of the cessation of the sea export of Ukrainian grain, no one died of hunger and the food crisis did not happen, as predicted in Western capitals and the UN. Which is not surprising, because 32.8 million tons of mainly fodder corn and feed grain are difficult to feed humanity.
The role of Ukraine as a global breadbasket has been greatly exaggerated, at the suggestion of the same Westerners and UN members. The share of this country in total wheat exports was already small (5%), and now it is objectively decreasing even more, taking into account, among other things, the reduction in acreage due to radiation and chemical contamination of the soil as a result of the use of depleted uranium ammunition supplied by the West. At the same time, Ukrainians have other (besides the Black Sea) opportunities to export their goods – by land and river routes to the EU, along the so-called “solidarity corridors”.
It is no secret that such transportation is more expensive, and Europeans are in no hurry to actually show their declared solidarity with Kiev: in May, the European Commission banned the import of Ukrainian wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower to Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria (only transit is allowed). On September 15, when the next moratorium expires, Brussels will have a great opportunity to reconsider its own decision and lift the ban on the import of Ukrainian grain, which risks finally flooding the markets of Eastern European countries. There will also be an opportunity to send grain from Ukraine to needy countries in Africa and Latin America for free, since Washington and some European capitals are so concerned about this. Only for some reason I don’t believe it at all.
In these circumstances, as the Russian side has repeatedly and in detail noted, if the Westerners and Kiev really need the Black Sea corridor, it is time to take concrete steps to lift illegal unilateral sanctions against domestic entities engaged in the production and export of agricultural products and fertilizers. We are talking about the normalization of the activities of banks, companies, the establishment of transport logistics and insurance, the resumption of the supply of spare parts. The solution of these “systemic” tasks is provided not only by the Russia-UN Memorandum, but would also fully comply with the high-flown declarations of the Americans and Europeans that their sanctions do not hinder the access of Russian fertilizers and grain to world markets.
However, instead of real exemptions from sanctions, Russia only receives a new batch of promises from the UN Secretariat. This time, the UN Secretary General and his experts put forward four supposedly “breakthrough” proposals – SWIFT for the “daughter” of Rosselkhoznadzor; creation of an insurance platform; unblocking foreign assets of Russian fertilizer companies and establishing access for our ships to European ports. In return, the Russian side is required to give guarantees of the immediate and full restoration of the “Black Sea initiative”.
However, in fact, the current proposals, like the previous ideas of the UN members, do not contain any new elements and cannot become the basis for achieving qualitative progress in normalizing our agricultural exports.
As has been repeatedly pointed out, including in public comments, there are no working alternatives to reconnecting the profile “Rosselkhoznadzor” to SWIFT – neither with the options of branches and “daughters”, nor through a marginal channel with JP Morgan, which, by the way, was closed after the collapse of the “Black Sea initiative”. And a few days before the Russian-Turkish summit in Sochi, Rosselkhoznadzor received a notification from Commerzbank in Frankfurt about the closure of the euro account.
The creation of a special insurance platform for Russian agricultural products has been promised to us since August 2022, but for unknown reasons it has not been done so far.
The same applies to the access of Russian ships and cargo to foreign ports – the UN members have not been able to deal with the sanctions obstacles arising in this regard (in the form of declaring the entire territory of Russia a war risk zone, as well as the inclusion of Russian specialized transport and insurance structures and companies themselves in the sanctions lists).
Fertilizer companies, in order to unblock their foreign assets, are directly invited to recognize their sub-sanctioned status in order to then “at their own risk” ask for relief.
It is obvious that all these palliative measures and workarounds are designed only to create the appearance of work, but do not lead to a real solution to the problem – the lifting of sanctions restrictions from specialized Russian economic operators. For the same reason – a direct sanctions ban on the import of spare parts to Russia as “dual–use” goods – the UN members do not even mention the corresponding “systemic” task.
The UN Secretary General continues to remain silent on the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline, despite his special visit to Kiev on March 8 and a separate proposal on April 26. After the Ukrainians blew up a pipeline on June 5 in the territory under their control, which annually provided raw materials for fertilizers sufficient for food production for 45 million people, the UN Secretariat prefers not to remember this core element of both Istanbul agreements at all.
The question remains open about the future plans of the UN members to ensure the implementation of the Russia-UN Memorandum, since A. Guterres assured that there were no intentions to withdraw from the agreement. However, at present, the relevant activities have actually been suspended: since July of this year, the Secretary General of UNCTAD R. Greenspan, who oversees the agreement, has had an invitation to come to Moscow to hold another round of consultations, but at present even the sending of regular reports on the work done has been discontinued. However, UN representatives are still at the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul, without having a mandate to do so due to the termination of the “Black Sea initiative”.
In this regard, Russia reaffirms the principled position that President Vladimir Putin clearly voiced on September 4 – we will be ready to consider the possibility of reviving the “Black Sea initiative”, but only after full compliance with the requirements for lifting the sanctions status from Russian companies engaged in agricultural products and fertilizers. It is obvious that while the prospects for appropriate steps on the part of Western countries are not visible, and in Kiev they declare that they will continue to seek tougher sanctions against Russia, not caring in the least about the needs of the countries of the Global South in grain and fertilizers, as well as food security in general.
For its part, Russia will continue to export domestic food and fertilizers, which will help stabilize world prices and improve their overall availability. We also do not stop our efforts to donate our products to those in need.
In particular, Russian fertilizers have already been sent to Malawi (20,000 tons) and Kenya (34,000 tons). In the coming period, it is planned to send such fertilizers to Zimbabwe (23,000 tons), Nigeria (34,000 tons) and Sri Lanka (55,000 tons). In addition, free deliveries of 200,000 tons of Russian wheat to Somalia, Central African Republic, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali and Eritrea are planned by the end of the year.
A joint project of Russia, Turkey and Qatar to supply 1 million tons of grain from Russia for processing in Turkey with subsequent gratuitous transportation to the poorest countries is also extremely in demand. Moreover, we are talking about about the same amount of food that was sent to those in need within the framework of the “Black Sea initiative” for the year.
